itan: Twilight taiji in Chen Village

Ouch! My knees can feel how hard I worked this week! Desperate to soak up the last of the Qi of Chenjiagou I awoke at 2am! Rather than lie tossing and turning in between Svetlana and Eugenia (we were sharing a pretty unhygienic room with 3 single beds in a row) I got up and dressed silently in the dark and stole out into the courtyard. This morning ritual normally takes place around 6am, though I was out at 4.30am mid-week. Not too bad as I'm in bed between 9-10pm.

This twilight morn for the first 2hrs it was just me under the stars. A confused cockrel woke the barking guard dog, the chef (who later gave me a farewell hug when I went to fill my flask with hot water) made his way to the kitchen, a few young Chinese students started their daily running warm up. Later Chen XiaoXing, the grandmaster's upstaged humbler brother made his daily walk to get bread. As this was the last time I would perform this morning ritual so I saluted him.

So exhilarating meeting and training with Russians, Brazilians, Aussies, Germans, Japanese, Americans...
My temple Mantra - 'No compare, no fair' - came to the fore. There were several taiji teachers with varying styles and skills who hosted Grandmaster Chen XiaoWang or who ingratiated themselves sufficiently to be awarded the title of 'Disciple' at the mid-week ceremony in Chen temple next door. Some were to give donstrations of various forms along with Chinese students at the school and the demonstration was rounded off by Chen modest Xinjia followed by his brother's unleashed tiger pperformance! Fearsome!

Daryl, a lovely black American fom Seattle who was in Chenjiagou for the 36th time and discipled long ago explained that this and the 'Duan' gradings were part of the way in which CXW had got back in line with the Chinese government after deserting to Sydney in 80s.

Sadly taiji has become a commodity for the Chinese government. As well as standardising taiji and qigong forms they have found a lucrative way of keeping hold if the reins in taijiquan and other Chinese martial arts through gradings. The standard bearer of Chen taiji is my teacher, Grandmaster Chen XiaoWang.

There is a lovely myth of a monk in Wudang mountain, Chang Seng-Fen, creating taiji after watching a snake and crane fighting. The historical background is that Chen Wanting, a general, retired to his home village here in Henan in the centre of China and devised this internal martial art.

Today the village is becoming a commercial enterprise. There are Chinese kids training but the main source of income for the village is taiji tourism. Master Chen's brother owns this school and his cousin a rival school in the village. His sister owns a clothing and weapons shop. His ex-wife (of which there are quite a few) runs a shop, school and Tui Na massage place underneath this 'hotel' where I'm staying.

I have a feeling this is my first and last trip to Chenjiagou. I feel blessed to be here and to get posture corrections and encouragement from Tim the Aussie (of Cantonese origin) with a wealth of experience training with Mrs Chen (the 2nd) and Ying Jun (his first wife's son) in Oz. Also Nathan the cuddly buddhist brickhouse who helped me to open my eyes, literally, awakening the silk cocoon that my teacherless taiji had become, and needled my knee. Then there was Leandro the tall shy Brazilian taiji teacher and actor who gave me a t- shirt from his school in Rio. My Portuguese improved inverse proportionally to my Chinese!

I got a ride in a 4x4 with the Aussies to the airport after the best breakast of congee and meat-filled bread muffin (see pic). Why did I only discover this on the last morning? Actually the food's been ok, mainly veg and not as greasy as Harbin. It didn't help much that Aussie Sam was a chef at Spirit House in Brisbane - a Thai restaurant that I'd never heard of until the Thai boy (masters graduate with merit from Imperial College now) who stayed with Sim and I in Victoria Rd when he first arrived, a homeless student. Anyway I met for lunch with Mark and his real estate mum, Sue (who Tang got me in touch with when dad was thinking about selling his house...) and he gave me 2 Thai cookbooks ad we cooked a lot of Thai food for him. Maybe it wasn't up to scratch? So, I encounter coincidences along the way. Tim (Aussie's) wife is from Chowzhou - the ancient city with the reconstructed boat bridge neighboring Shantou where dad is from.

Delayed plane so I may miss the jiaozi (dumpling) dinner with the uni taiji group in Harbin. My Chinese classmates texted and rang me to give directions for Harbin airport if where to buy bus ticket, which bus to catch to the big bridge near Lin Da - our swimming uni.

The travel gods are still by my side. They have also returned to Simone and Cornelia who are in pittoresque Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. The got double entry 2x30 days visas for China so will travel together thro China to Mongolia. Then Sim will come back to meet me in Harbin around 5 June and Cornelia will trans-Siberian train it back to Basel.

Til then it's head down & hard work at clinic to make up for my week's taiji experience.